1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management technology of CAD (Computer Aided Design) data used for a CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) analysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, to accomplish a design of a certain product, the following processes are required. First of all, a two-dimensional draft is drawn, a prototype is created based on the draft, and then the prototype is tested. Consequently, problems are identified in the prototype so that a more perfect draft is drawn. However, repeating creating a prototype requires a long development period and increases cost of the prototypes. Therefore, in recent years, a computer is used for a structural analysis (that is, so-called CAE analysis) of a product based on CAD data in order to shorten the development period (See JP2002-92042A).
The outline of the conventional CAE analysis will be described below.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the outline of process steps of the conventional CAE analysis.
First of all, a set of mesh conditions are specified for a CAD model (or a set of CAD data) by a computer-aided design system or the like. Then, a mesh process is performed to create a CAE model (S1). The CAE model is a model in which the CAD model is divided into polyhedral meshes to facilitate the CAE analysis. For instance, the mesh conditions include Size, Sag Ratio, and so on which respectively express a size of a triangular mesh, a shape of the triangular mesh, and so on in the CAE model. Size expresses an approximate length of the triangular mesh in the CAE model. Sag Ratio, which is so called aspect (Aspect Ratio), expresses how flat the triangular mesh is. For instance, Sag Ratio expresses a ratio of a length of a long side to that of a short side of the triangular mesh. The larger a value of Sag Ratio is, the flatter the triangular mesh is.
Next, the CAD system specifies a set of analysis conditions of the CAE analysis on the created CAE model, and performs the CAE analysis (S2). The analysis conditions include, for instance, a torque value or a load value, a torque direction or a load direction, a cycle Hz of the load value, and so on.
Conventionally, the mesh process in S1 requires complicated computation and takes as long as about one month even for a specialist in the CAE analysis. Therefore, the CAE model created from the set of the CAD data and a set of analysis results of the CAE analysis need to be stored and managed for later use. In this case, the set of the CAD data, and the CAE model and the set of the analysis results of the CAE analysis are usually managed separately. In addition, the set of the CAD data is often manually associated with the CAE model and the set of the analysis results.